Dive into the future-past of what ‘Star Wars: Episode VII’ would’ve been under George Lucas

Star Wars fans are in a weird spot right now, trapped between last year”s release of The Force Awakens and the upcoming Rogue One. Sure, Star Wars Rebels just premiered its third season, but that”s just not enough to whet the lore whistle. We crave news aboutJyn Erso”s mom. Or Jyn Erso”s rank within the Rebellion. Or if Jyn Erso is responsible for this explosion.

But if Rogue One news is hard to come by, any inkling of Episode VIII is as mysterious as the Witches of Dathomir. In order to discover what may be in store in the future, we must look to the past. Or more specifically, YouTuber Mr. Sunday Movies must look into the past for us and return with appropriate sound bites. Bless him for digging through decades of quotes from George Lucas about what his vision for a galaxy far, far away looked like in a post-Return of the Jedi world.

The whole 11 minutes is definitely worth your time, but some highlights:

• The only characters Lucas would confirm for all three trilogies were C-3P0 and R2-D2. While the Star Wars creator consistently says his films are the story of the Skywalker family, I stand by my belief that Artoo is the true protagonist. Think about it. He”s the only character with a complete arc. He”s never mind-wiped, so he”s perfectly aware of decades of history, parsing out knowledge on a need-to-know basis. He”s constantly getting his doofy but lovable organics out of scrapes. R2-D2 is the Hermione and/or Samwise Gamgee of the Star Wars universe.

• Luke and Leia were never meant to be siblings. If the creepy kisses – yes, TWO of them – weren”t enough of a bellwether that they weren”t intended to be twins, producer Gary Kurtz spilled the beans back in 1999. At a convention, Kurtz spoke of how Episode VIII would introduce Luke”s sister. This reveal would throw a wrench into Luke”s life as a Jedi teacher before the Emperor came out of the shadows at the end of Episode IX (instead of Episode VI). As pure speculation on my part, I have to wonder if Leia becoming Luke”s sister led to the original sibling reveal to become Mara Jade. If so, it worked out for the best.

• George Lucas asked Mark Hamill way back in 1977 if the actor would consider returning to the franchise as an Obi-Wan figure in 2011.